Grateful Dead

November 5 - November 11, 2007

This week we have some great material from 1973 and 1985 from this week in Grateful Dead history, plus a little taste of some great music from 1974 just because we thought you’d really dig it.

Our first stop today is in Evanston, Illinois on November 1, 1973, the last show of the first leg of a two month stretch in Grateful Dead performing history that is virtually unrivalled in their 30 year career. The second set on this night featured two big jams, with this being the second of the two, Mississippi Half-Step>He’s Gone>Truckin’>Wharf Rat. The jam that preceded it would be a precursor to the big jams played on 11/10/73, 11/17/73 and 3/23/74. This one, though, has some inspired playing in its own right.

Following the Evanston show on 11/1/73, the band would head back to California for a three night run at Winterland, a set of a very rare Bay Area shows in 1973. The band only played two shows prior to this in their home region in 1973, 2/9/73 at Stanford and, of course, 5/26/73 at Kezar. The quality and quantity of these three Winterland shows would help make up for the dearth of shows prior to this. Each night was outstanding, but the third night could go down as one of the truly classic, epic Grateful Dead shows of all time. From this show, 11/11/73, we have China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider, and a masterful Weather Report Suite, which was played at all three shows, and soared each time.

Jumping forward a year, with no date relevance to this week in Grateful Dead history, we have this exceptional China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider from 8/5/74, drawn from Dick’s Picks Volume 31. We hope you don’t mind two China>Riders this week; we sure don’t. This one in particular is extra-fine, in that the jam prior to Rider just keeps on going, and every time it seems it’s time to end the jam, the band keeps bringing it to another level. This and 2/28/73 in Salt Lake City are two of my favourite renditions of this combination.

Wow that '85 sequence is really nice. And it's crazy but I never even knew that Don't Need Love song even existed! I just missed that one by like a year. Whoa, what brutal lyrics! It's a great version here. After hearing it I became obsessed and chased down several different versions online. Not good for productivity at work! Then I got home and listened some more! It was a really good day b/c I learned a new Dead tune today. Not something that happens every day! Yay!

I certainly hope, in either this space or with this Road Trips thing, that the glorious swing through Texas in mid-to-late November of 1972 gets represented generously here soon.
What a great, and underrated, clump of shows. The two Dark Stars, and a couple of the Playins,' are what '72 Dead is all about. Sweet stuff.

the butterbean loves the 74 jams!!!
thank you for continuing the taper's section....it brings so much joy to the butterbean everyweek that the butterbean can't contain all the joy in one place.....the butterbean has been getting his butterbean groove on with this week's heady selections....

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